The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-06-04
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
OLD SETTLERS.
MIR. SAMUEL -. BARBER.

Among the earliest settlers OF the town
of Mission is well known and highly re.
spected citizen, Mr.. Samuel ID. Barber. He
was born in Sullivan county, East Tennessee,
April. II, 1904. His father was native of
the Empire State, his birth place being near
Saltwater, N. Y, and his grandfather, ST.
neon Barber, owned the buck wheat field
wherein Gen. Burgoyne, the luckIess Eng
lish general, had rather embarrassing in.
terview with General Gates, which termi.
mated in making the former general and his
army, prisoners of war to the Yankee SOL
diers, during the war of the revolution; and
at that time grandfather Barber was n sol
der in the Continental army and his family
were obliged to vacate their house in the
said buckwhea field, in order to give the
hap, to keep out Of the way Of stray flying
bullets Mr.. BARRIERS ancestry were prpbn
bly, English on his fathers side, while, his
mother, Eleanor Lewis, was native Of
Reading, Pa, and of Welsh descent. The
union of these two hardy and intellectual
races Invariably produces steady, sturdy
and industrious progeny, the chief charac.
teris,cs Of whose character are personal
courage and scrupuous honesty, qualities
which have particularly distinguished the
family of which we write. A few years
after the birth of Samuel D., his father
moved the family from East to West Tennes.
see, but not liking that wild country,
changed his location in 1919, to Dearborn
county, Indiana, but while escaping from
the rugged mountains of Tennessee, he still
found no land Of promise Of anything else
than a life Of grubbing stumps; for his lot
had cast him among one Of the heaviest tim
bered regions Of the lIoosier State. Here
young Samuel worked like a Trojan, picked
up such education as the woods offered
which included little book learning, and
grew up, and became thirty years old, be
fore he realized that it might be possible to
find a land where stumps did not grow On
September %, 1925 at Lawrenceburg, Ind,
he married Miss Elizabeth Nelf a daughter
Of Ebenezer Nen and sister of Henry Neti
Of Ottawa, also early settlers Of La Sale
county. In 1884, Mr.. Barber adopted Der
kelley motto Of "west ward, no - and an.
ticipated Greeley's advice, Ego west; and he
and his wife and four children, made their
way through the woods, across ravnes,
through creeks and rivers, as best they
could, making their own road much of the
way, taking as much household stuff and
articles Indispensable in new country, as
they could conveniently carry, to Cincinnati
Ohio, where they boarded n steamboat and
foated down to the Mississippi, and thence
came up the Illinois to Ottawa, making the
latter part of their voyage on good steam
boat whose name he has forgotten, but
+. Walker the pilot. He was brother of
Geo Il. Walker, the first sheriff of the coun-
".
The movers arrived at Ottawa about the
middle Of April, 1884. Then there were
but six families in Ottawa and they lived on
the South Side, among whom were the
names Of Harris and Vermet. Remaining
about two weeks at tho landing place, nearly
opposite the mouth Of the Fox river, they
left for Holderman's Grove and took possess
ion Of an abandoned cabin, built and for
merly occupied by Vattel Vermet, French
man, who had long been an Indian trader
and had all his days lived nomadic life on
the borders Of civilization, sort Of connect.
lug link between the whites and Indians
between whom he traded and both Of whom
we're indispensable to his existence. Here
Mr.. BARRIERS family remained while he
looked up site for their future home. He
pitched upon nice piece Of prairie and
timber two miles south east of the present
village of Sheridan and a mile north Of Mis-.
sion Greek.
A LOG RAIsISG.
His hrst attempt IN tue way OF house
was the back woodsman's ineyitablelog cabin
He cut the logs himself and "snaked' them
10 the building spot and got his neighbors tC
help him at the "rsising''-an enterprise Of
some labor, good things 10 eat and unlimited